ANALYZING INTERRELATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITY COMPETITIVENESS AND SOCIAL-ECONOMIC SITUATION IN REGIONS

Abstract

The article analyzes the interrelation between the level of social and economic development of Russian Federation entities and competitiveness of Russian universities. The information base for this analysis was formed by ratings of social and economic development of Russian Federation entities made by the rating agency ‘RIA Rating’ and the Top-100 of the best universities in Russia according to the rating agencies ‘Expert RA’ and ‘Interfax’. The rise in our universities’ appeal in Russia and abroad is an essential factor fostering social and economic development of our country. The improvement of Russian universities’ positions in international ratings can attract youth from different countries. The authors showed that sustainable social and economic development of Russian Federation entities is connected with the development of the competitive potential of universities located on the territory of these entities. At the same time the opposite statement is also correct: applicants prefer universities situated in big cities with high level of social and economic development rather than cities with low standard of life. Therefore, the authors recommend to intensify state support of Russian universities located in regions with low level of social and economic development and put forward various variants of state support.

Keywords

• competitive potential of universities
• analysis of universities’ competitiveness